When first faced with the task to “intentionally design our habitats to adapt as well as we possibly can to our new environment” I didn’t really know what that could entail other than rearranging a room. I was still conflicted about how I could tackle this task after doing the constraint map. Then I was looking through social media and I saw a lot of “30-day challenges” for working out or self-care and I had previously done a few and thought that it would be fun to make my own for things to do during the quarantine. Once I had the idea, it felt like everything came together very quickly. I immediately knew what kinds of things I would put on there, as many of them were things that I enjoy doing and have wanted to do more of but never had the time at school. I loved making it look pretty and organizing everything into the template.
One of the things that I didn’t truly factor in making the challenge was materials or weather. For example, I initially put baking as one of the first days, but when I went to go make some recipes I had found online, I realized we didn’t have all of the ingredients I needed and would have to wait to go to the supper market because we are only shopping once a week. The other one was the weather. I had put outdoor activities such as bike ride and walk on the beach earlier on the schedule, but when the day came for a bike ride, it was bad weather so I had to move a few things around.
Overall I think that the challenge has made life a little better in quarantine and has gotten me to do other things besides watch tv. I have found that I have been doing some of the activities more than just the days I scheduled them. For example, I have played the guitar more than just the two lessons I scheduled for the past week which has been super fun, and I have probably baked and cooked so many different things than just one day. It has also been nice to cross off each day with a big red X showing what I have accomplished and how far I’ve come.
I think I could take this to the next step by using it not just during quarantine, but during other times of my life. I can also change up the activities depending on the month/ season like if I wanted to do it during the summer I could put sailing or swimming, or if it were in the fall I could go apple picking and go to a football game. Also, maybe I could add the wow factor of having to document each day’s activity in a fun way either through a picture or a short video and then at the end of the challenge I have a whole scrapbook or video of memories to show what I accomplished.
Overall, I really liked learning about the design process and putting it into a real-world context. I think the hardest part was the constraints, because of how I was really unsure of what I should be including and also what the actual constraints are for the pandemic. I really loved the brainstorming phase because I have been in a lot of different brainstorming situations from themes of parties to what we should have for dinner, and I loved the concept of letting your brain go to the farthest and craziest edges. I feel like I still have to work on the testing and iterating part of the process, as a lot of times when I have an idea, that is final and I don’t like to change it. Whereas now I know that iteration is really important in making the idea even that much better. I hope to continue to use the design process not only in my career but in many more areas of my life.
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